The Well 7
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- Jungian Thinking
- After I started doing Kriya
- Yogananda Praising Fascism in the 30s
- Yogananda Discussion
Jungian Thinking
This is largely Jungian thinking:
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| The full scene is a process too - |
People should be working for solid restitutions to combat alarming denials of a sect and cult.
One important discovery will be "What is it about me that allowed myself to give away my power and put myself in a vulnerable position in relationship to these people for so long?" - when the full scene is reconstructed. (5)
We can undermine betrayals or betrayers. We need to shine a bright light into our closeted emotions. But one is on some wrong path if where this is all heading is more sophisticated realms of denial.
Followers in narrow-minded groups cannot be engaged in a discussion of the issues that matter most without angered (defensive) or parrot-like responses. ¤
When solid differentiation is attained, integration sets in, hopefully. (7)
After I Started Doing Kriya
After I started doing Kriya correctly
Poem derived from a post on a kriya related discussion board:"After I started practicing SRF's Kriya yoga
I started experiencing awful burning and itching sensations
all over my body.
I was going crazy.
I started going to doctors,
got all the medical tests, they could not find anything physically wrong. They asked if I
was doing drugs!
The doctors said it must be mental, but . . .
I asked several SRF counselors but they dismissed me saying "Everybody who practices kriya
benefits and gets good feelings".
Well, I am doing it correctly, a monk even checked my practice, and said I was doing it
correctly -
and it is driving me crazy,
I feel like I am going to lose my mind!
Sometimes I feel that if this continues I will end up taking my own life."
Pranayama Practice May Hurt Some
I agree with much of what you have said, and would add: Meditation should not be taught indiscriminately. For most, it may be very innocent, but for some, it isn't.Mantra meditation does make you more clear, gives calmness and so on.
The teaching of Kriya yoga - you could make them a dangerous form of pranayama [see dictionary]. [Soumuan]
No Dragons Have Been Made Real
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| A dragon is largely thought up. |
Hope: The more interiorization by reclusive lifestyle and recluse practices, the more effective and constructive. Good moral is needed too. As it is said:
Happiness is the outcome of good. [Buddha]One is to clarify the mind to arrive at its source [Zen counsel]
Yogananda Praising Fascism in the 30s
Here is some Yoganandic thinking from the first half of the 1930s, when he was about 40 years old. He is quoted verbatim, and the source of these sayings is a thread on the SRF Walrus Discussion Board [NA]:The average man cannot think clearly . . . He needs the master mind of a Dictator in order to think right and do right." - Yogananda. "Interview". East-West, Vol. 6.
"An insulted, snubbed Germany, if it gets away from the uplifting guidance of Hitler, may join Russia and make her a more powerful enemy of France and so on.
"The Allies must reduce their own armaments first, and then they will find out that the example speaks louder than words.[Swami Yogananda. "Christmas message". East-West Magazine, 1933]
Some Interview
In East-West, Volume 6, there is an interview with Swami YoganandaQuestion: What message has Hindu philosophy to offer toward solving present-day problems of peace between nations and averting international disasters?
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| From the Gandhi way: The United States of the World |
[T]he nations of the earth must scrap the engines of war and try to settle their international disputes in the Gandhi way.
[B]y love, Gandhi has made over 60 per cent of the people of India stop drinking. By his spinning wheel, philosophy of plain living and high thinking, and the doctrine of all for each and each for all, Gandhi is not only founding India's freedom on solid Spiritual laws, but is showing the nations how they can build an United States of the World . . .
. . .
Answer: We may stumble on the way, we may slip backward a little, but being endowed
with Divine Intelligence, mentally we shall be moving constantly toward the goal of Truth
and understanding. . . .
Individual national selfishness must be sacrificed for the greater patriotism of
international common well-being. Then it will be found that real international upliftment
includes the national upliftment.
Question: Individualism and socialism are conflicting philosophies in the modern world. Which is more likely to prevail in the future?
Answer: Individual perfection and social upliftment are interdependent. A master
brain like that of Mussolini does more good than millions of social organizations of group
intelligence. Yet, if many persons in a group should develop the brain power of a
Mussolini, they would be greater than the individual Mussolini.
Socialism, consisting of evolved individuals, will prevail in the end, but as long as
people are not highly evolved, individualism will keep coming to the surface.
Individualism exists only for the ushering in of Spiritual socialism . . .
Question: Does the rise, in recent years, of dictatorships as forms of government indicate the failure and ultimate doom of Democracy?
Answer: A society of morons and unthinking people will never establish a real
Democracy. The average man cannot think clearly, but is ruled by explosions of his
emotions. He needs the master mind of a Dictator in order to think right and do
right. [But in a] Democracy of universal wisdom and agreement, [the mass of people] will
then be able to govern themselves spontaneously by the universal laws of Truth. Then
Dictators will be unnecessary.
One real wise Dictator, like President Roosevelt, is much better than too many cooks
of small Dictators and politicians, who spoil the broth. Much is discussed and nothing
accomplished with many. A whole-hearted co-operation with . . . with active, wise President
Roosevelt, will bring prosperity and international balance. Democracy will never fail; it is
the growing life of nations, which will mature through the trials of republicanism,
dictatorships, capitalism, and any other "isms" which are necessary for its growth.
Question: What effect would independence for India probably have on that nation's diplomatic and commercial relations with other countries?
Answer: Germany and England did a great deal of business with India, but India's
non-violence war with England has caused a boycott of most European goods.
Unless England gives complete independence, or self-government, to India, India will
boycott all European goods.
A free India will enrich the world . . . when she uses the hoarded gold of the idle
princes to buy agricultural and scientific machinery.
[Swami Yogananda. "An Interview". East West Magazine, Vol 6.]
Discussion
In East-West Magazine, Vol 2, Benito Mussolini's "Science and Religion" is given space:Philosophy alone can illumine Science and bring it within the realm of the Universal Idea. - Mussolini, from a public speech, February, 1927.These clippings are from "the Walnut" (a pro-Yogananda discussion-board). It's policy does not allow criticism of the guru Yogananda. But what do we have here? Yogananda-critical, disillusioned postings due to thinking activity. More:
Findings of Yogananda Followers and a Few More
Below is a collection of memorable words by guru followers and maybe ex followers, mainly. They take off from the citations above:"God help SRF if any mainstream Christian or Jewish organizations find out about this. [Juftan]
"I saw a letter from the SRF Center Department, dealing with what inspirational materials service readers may read from at services. The "allowed texts" were the current version of the AY and other books, and "SRF magazines dated 1974 and later." [another]
"[The SRF minister] Anandamoy, he advised me to forget such controversies and focus on the techniques. [Juftan]
. . . to realize that this supposedly omniscient Guru made such staggeringly obvious blunders. . . . someone who is capable of some egregious errors [Juftan]
"I don't know what followed, or if Master corrected himself or what. [Hidine Swinger]
"Hitler. -- When he came to power, Germany loved this guy. [Matron]
"From Yogananda's glowing praise of Hitler, one would expect that the all-seeing Guru was simply unaware of the facts---Hitler was a megalomaniac and his military supporters were the worst kind of thugs . . . [Juftan]
"Hitler was evil, I don't doubt that and to hear Yogananda compliment him is weird." [Matron]
"I have to agree with those who say that Master just wasn't very informed in 1933. [Hidine Swinger]
Yogananda . . . was never a person I really felt comfortable praying to, except at the very beginning. [Tranger31]
"Deifying the teacher was something that SRF had done . . . guru worship is pretty central to the entire message that Yogananda brought. Consider the music: "Guru lord, I bow to Thee," or "Guru image of Brahman..." [Tranger31]
"The great Guru was not in tune with God when he praised Hitler, Mussolini. The bottom line is, an avatar, a Guru, can make a mistake and that's still apparently OK. . . . Gosh, it was so much easier to just blindly believe everything he said." [Juftan]
"Dangers of Hitler? What kind of omniscience did he have if he couldn't see ANY of this? [Juftan]
"Focusing on the techniques (which do work, I think we all agree) and ignoring the hard questions like some monastics have counseled is just a cop out." [Rosco Burn]
"I think the far more persuasive conclusion is that PY made huge errors of judgment on some things that he just wasn't knowledgeable about . . . he missed pretty obvious atrocities in 1933 and after." [Hidine Swinger]
"Maybe his errors, and ours, have lessons for us and for others that are valuable . . . I won't believe everything blindly again." [Hidine Swinger]
"PY is falling way short of the mark." [Rosco Burn]
"The [SRF-given, laden] perfection story sets up so much else that is pernicious. The editings and rationalizations and secrecy. For what kind of perfect master would create an imperfect organization, or allow an imperfect president to lead it?" [Tranger31]
"If you've taken kriya, you actually signed a contract, such that God is going to leave you in this ocean of suffering until you . . . get the nod of this master . . . your one and only gatekeeper." [Tranger31]
"I'm not taking everything he said as gospel anymore." [Hidine Swinger]
"I have heard that yogananda didn't achieve final liberation until around 1948." [Matron]
"Both the commies and the Nazis were dangerous and evil. Had Yogananda been able to see that, he would most certainly not have described Hitler's iron dictatorship as "uplifting guidance." Heaven forbid." [Juftan]
"It wasn't just one article and it wasn't just the comment on Hitler . . . These were his own words published during his life by his organization." [Hidine Swinger]
"The quote about Hitler is offensive enough, but Mussolini wasn't far behind Hitler in his brutality and evil . . . For crying out loud, what sort of !@#$%^&* would characterize Mussolini this way? He was a Mafia thug!" [Juftan]
"But hey, he made the trains run on time!" [Rosco Burn]
"The facts of Yogananda's inexcusable praise of the three most brutal dictators of the twentieth century have NOT been taking PY out of context." [Juftan]
"How can we be sure he didn't get other things wrong?" [Juftan]
"This clever ruse by the Nazis was apparently never penetrated by the divine wisdom of the great guru Yogananda. Makes one wonder, and weep." [Juftan]
"Check out the following link: - www.ericblumrich.com/14.html - Turns out, the USA is currently displaying all 14 characteristics of a Nazi regime." [Juftan]
NOTE: Try another one if the music is disturbing: http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html"I think he [Yogananda] was ill informed." [Feggie]Some Noam Chomsky messages say mainly the same about the States: [LINK]
Summary so far
Hidine Ripsy - interesting:Yogananda called Mussolini a great man in 1933. It should make me wonder what a great man is and was.
Guru opinions have a part of the totalitarian attitude, as seen in the taming kriya pledge, and several hovering SRF attitudes.
The guru-disciple structure and stricture, reflected in part in organizations too, is quite as in ancient lore, it is said, but here is a finding: There are varying traditions and attitudes in ancient yoga too. However, in the kriya yoga tradition after Shyama Lahiri You give the guru your wife too, as if she is your possession, and not ally, which is quite a Western concept.
As for historical analyses, there is some muddling speculation along the thread about what would have happened if (this and that). Ignore such stuff (speculation) for what could have happened (something probable, at least). Elementary, dear Dr. Watsons! Grrr . . . Yet, other options and avenues could have opened up if something so-called unrealistic, like Ronald Reagan's "Mr, Gorbatjev, tear down that wall" had entered the ring also.
I agree with Matron's "Germany had been pushed into a corner". History textbooks are on her side in the matter.
The guru-disciple structure, reflected in part in organizations too, may feed authoritarian structures. Compare:
Well, we do."We do not find fault with Paramahansa Yogananda's guidelines. Since we believe . . . his wisdom is flawless." [Notarized SRF letter]
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| Literature | SECTION | First Page |
Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1975.
Ap: Mieder, Wolfgang (main editor), Stewart A. Kingsbury, and Kelsie E. Harder: A Dictionary of American Proverbs. (Paperback) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Ay: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Theosophical, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]
Clh: Dimmit, Cornelia and van Buitenen, J. A. B. trs: Classical Hindu Mythology. Temple University. Philadelphia, 1978.
Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2006.
Op: Simpson, John, and Jennifer Speake. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Pa: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1971.
Say: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Sayings of Yogananda. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1958.
NA: "early East West", a thread on the SRF Walrus's "Not in the mainstream". Started by "divine gypsy". http://p203.ezboard.com/fsrfwalrusfrm39.showMessage?topicID=56.topic. Accessed 10 October 2005 New URL: http://srfwalrus.yuku.com/reply/9883/t/early-East-West.html#reply-9883. Accessed 31 March 2008. .
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